Sage, foe play opener in the dark

Coach Tom Monarch and the Sage Hill School football team admittedly don’t know much about St. Genevieve High, the team the Lightning plays host to tonight at 7 in their season opener.

But that’s all right, Monarch said, because St. Genevieve probably doesn’t know much about Sage Hill either.

“The two schools don’t know a lot about each other,” Monarch said. “We’ve never played them before, so there’s no history there.”

What Sage Hill players do know is that they want to continue the upward swing of last year, when the Lightning went 9-2 and had their first CIF Southern Section playoff victory.

On paper, tonight’s game may appear to be a mismatch.

St. Genevieve, from Panarama City, went 0-10 last season, and the Valiants were outscored by a combined 330-128.

But St. Genevieve is now led by first-year coach Tony White, who played linebacker at UCLA from 1997 through 2000.

Monarch said St. Genevieve will probably run a traditional I-formation offense.

“Good, old-fashioned, bread-and-butter football is what they run,” Monarch said. “We want to shut down their off-tackle [running] game, maybe make them go to the air.”

Sage Hill will be led on offense by junior quarterback Jamie McGee, who is entering his third year as the starter. McGee was 90 of 176 for 1,491 yards last season for the Lightning, throwing 21 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Starting running back Don Ayres, receiver Braden Ross and center J.J. Schumacher are the only seniors on offense for Sage Hill. They should provide leadership for the Lightning.

Ayres has rushed for more than 1,000 yards the last two seasons and was a Newport-Mesa Dream Team honoree at linebacker last fall.

Ayres and Ross will play linebacker and strong safety, respectively, for Sage Hill, with McGee at free safety and fellow senior Stuart Palley at noseguard.

“We lost 12 seniors, so it’s a group that wants to emulate those seniors,” Monarch said. “They’re very excited for the challenge. We want to carry over our success; keep moving in that direction.”

Monarch said he will enjoy tonight’s game, especially against a team which he knows next-to-nothing about.

“The first game is always neat,” he said. “There’s a lot less strategy going into the game. It depends more on the coaches’ and players’ ability to adapt, and we enjoy that challenge.”

Monarch said this year he tried to strengthen Sage Hill’s nonleague schedule. After tonight, the Lightning will play Saddleback Valley Christian, Fairmont Prep and Army-Navy before the team’s Academy League opener against Linfield Christian on Oct. 13.

“We’ve established ourselves to a point where we need to focus on preparing ourselves for the league,” Monarch said. “We know we can get wins, but we’re trying to [hit our] prime at the right time. And when you want to start priming is when league starts.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that the Lightning are overlooking any opponents.

“We’re focused on our league and winning a CIF championship,” Monarch said. “But the kids are very excited to get started again. This is what they’ve worked for all summer.”

Sage Hill is 2-2 in season openers since 2002, the Lightning’s first varsity season.